Posted on 03/13/2011 2:29:25 PM PDT by bruinbirdman
In 1982 a British task force used Ascension Island as a staging post during the Falklands War,[3] though according to Matthew Parris,[8] “...at the start of the Falklands conflict Washington at first refused Britain permission to use the USA-operated airfield facilities for refuelling RAF jets. Only after Mrs Thatcher intervened with Ronald Reagan did the Americans reluctantly concede.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ascension_Island
I’ll take that bet. When Christina de Kirchner visited the US Obama apparently refused to meet with her. According to the Argentines I spoke to, this was because she badmouthed the US. Also, during the SOTU Obama mentioned he would be visiting Brazil,Chile, y El Salvador. Argentina was conspicuously absent.
When asked what the US’s position on the Falklands dispute would be, Hillary Clinton said the US would be “neutral”. As to what she meant by that, your guess is as good as mine.
The most advanced fighter they have is an A4 Skyhawk, and most of their fighters aren’t even that. The Eurofighter could crap all over anything in their airforce, and that isn’t even taking into consideration the RAPIER missile batteries and probably the PAAMS Daring-class destroyer that would probably be on station nearby.
Overwhelming them with numbers would basically require them launch their entire airforce all at once (which I doubt they could) and then watch it get decimated until UK garrison forces ran out of missles.
If their airforce wasn’t totally destroyed, they’d have lost most of their aircraft, and for what?
Most people there just want peace, including the catholics. Even the Irish don’t really want reunification. It opens a whole can of worms that isn’t worth bothering about, it makes no real difference anyway because Being a British or Irish citizen is basically the same thing, other than having a slightly different passport.
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